The updates

Being a demanding user of your own service can really help to make it better. Recently I've been working on an observation scheduling interface for LCOGT and wanted to use Virtual Sky as part of that. We took a decision that the scheduling interface should be able to adapt to different widths and that meant Virtual Sky had to be able to shrink and grow to different sizes too. After a small matter of coding, Virtual Sky should now cope with being re-sized.

A few months ago someone reported some bugs in Internet Explorer 7 and; 8 and I've spent quite a while battling with each of them. I think I've mostly won that battle although IE 8 still has issues with dragging the sky that I haven't been able to fix.

Finally, I wanted to reduce the load time. The simplest way to do that was to reduce the file size. It turned out that approximately half the file was taken up by the data defining the stars. As there are many times more fainter stars than bright stars, and the faint stars are less obvious, I realised that I could display the bright stars initially and add in the fainter stars a little later. The result is a shorter time before something is displayed. This, along with some minification, has reduced the main file from 112 kB down to 78 kB (with a delayed 25 kB for the faint stars).

I've tested these updates in IE 7/8/9, Safari 5.1.2, Firefox 8/10/11/Mobile beta, Android 2.2 browser, and Opera 11.61. The growing number of browser versions makes it difficult to test everything so if you spot any bugs please let me know the details along with your web browser name and version.

- taken from Astronomy Blog (www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/)]]> Sat, 10 Mar 2012 01:45:00 +0000 http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/000998.shtml http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/000997.shtml
I wanted to do a quick post about something I was reminded about on Twitter earlier. Moon Games is a series of photographs by Laurent Laveder which use perspective to play with the Moon when it is near the horizon. Each photograph appears to show a foreground person interacting with the Moon as if it were next to them. I first saw Laurent's images when they used a hula-hoop to illustrate an eclipse for APoD back in 2006. There are some really nice compositions and I particularly like the one with a figure trying to lasso the Moon and this one where someone appears to be painting it. If you haven't seen them before, they are well worth a look. - taken from Astronomy Blog (www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/)]]> Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:47:00 +0000 http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/000997.shtml http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/000996.shtml CERN. Have they found a hint of a Higgs particle, have they found a hint of no Higgs particle? It is difficult to tell on a very broken-up webcast but, from what I can gather, there may be a hint of something with an energy of 126 GeV (with a level of confidence that doesn't let them claim a discovery yet).

Earlier, John Humphreys on the Today programme seemed to suggest that if nothing was found today the whole exercise (ATLAS/CMS) had been a waste of time. This view (he may have been playing devil's advocate) misunderstands how science works. The process of science is one of exploration. Things aren't always as you expected. Regardless of if you get the expected answer, the result tells you something about the universe that you didn't know (or were very unsure of) before. That's science.

Hunting for the Higgs particle is a bit like the game Battleships. You start off with a huge area of unexplored sea (or energy ranges) and you gradually place pegs in the board trying to locate the opponent's battleships (the Higgs particle). Your initial pegs are pretty unlikely to find your opponent's ships but you have to start searching somewhere. Searches that find nothing are still telling you something. As time goes on you start to really limit the places where the battleships can be. Gradually you start to spot battleship shaped holes in your search - some will be empty but some should contain what you're looking for*.

* Of course, your opponent might have cheated and not put down any battleships at all. As you rule out more and more sea you'll spot that too. - taken from Astronomy Blog (www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/)]]> Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:02:00 +0000 http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/000996.shtml http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/000995.shtml pantomime. Although the origins may extend to the ancient Greeks, modern pantomime originates in the Victorian era and is a comedic performance of a children's story usually performed in December or early January. They are mostly aimed at children but with some jokes for their parents too. A curious part of pantomime is that the lead male character is usually played by a young woman and there is always an elderly mother-figure (called the Dame) who is always played by a man.

Back in 2006, the Jodcast (the UK's first regular astronomy podcast) decided to share this tradition by book-ending the normal podcast with first and second acts of a pantomime. The Jodcast presenters put on their acting hats and produced a story loosely based on The Wizard of Oz but with a Jodcast slant. The next year we felt we should do another and so we presented our take on A Christmas Carol with the ghosts of Astronomy Past, Astronomy Now Present and Astronomy Future. Future years have seen Nick and the Intro Factory, Jenaddin (performed in front of a studio audience for Jodcast Live), Neil White and the Seven Dwarf Planets (with a cameo by dwarf planet finder Mike Brown), and this year's Jendarella.

I've extracted the pantomimes for posterity and included them below:

• 2006: The Wizard of Oz (2.3MB) starring Ian Morison as the Narrator, Nick Rattenbury as the Great and Powerful Pod, Megan Argo as Dorothy, Tim O'Brien as Tim Man, Stuart Lowe as Stuart-crow, David Ault as Cowardly Dave, Mark Bruzee as HAL and Seth Adam Sher as Dave;
• 2007: A Christmas Carol (2 MB) starring Ian Morison as the Narrator, David Ault as The Ghost of Astronomy Past, Nick Rattenbury as Bob Rattenbury, Stuart Lowe as Stuart Scrooge, Tim O'Brien as The Ghost of Jodcast Present and Mark Bruzee as HAL;
• 2008: Nick and the Intro Factory (2.9MB) starring Tom Muxlow as the Narrator, Nick Rattenbury as Nicky Bucket, Tim O'Brien as Grandpa Tim, David Ault as Dave Wonka, Stuart Lowe as Stuart PC, Megan Argoas Megan Newshound, Roy Smits as Roy, Mark Bruzee as HAL, and Fiona Waller as Mand;S lift and; Servelan.
• 2009: Jenaddin (4.6MB) starring Chris Lintott as the Narrator, David Ault as Doctor Twankey, Jen Gupta as Jenaddin, Stuart Lowe as Prof Abanaza, Megan Argoas Princess Parkes, Neil Young as the Emperor, Lisa Hartley as the Empress, Paul Miyagawa as theGuard, Nick Rattenbury as the Genie;
• 2010: Neil White and the Seven Dwarf Planets (2.1MB) starring Adam Avison as the Narrator, Neil Young as Prince Neil, Megan Argo as Eris, Jen Gupta as Ceres, Catherine McGuire as Haumea, Mark Purver as the Mirror, David Aultas the King and MakeMake, Ian Morison as 15727 IanMorison, and Mike Brown as himself;
• 2011: Jendarella (3MB) starring Libby Jones as the Narrator, Jen Gupta as Jenderella, Stuart Lowe as Baron Cardiff, Melanie Gendre as Stepmother, Adam Avison and Mark Purver as the Ugly Sisters, Megan Argoas Fairy Jodmother, David Ault as Prince Professional Respect, Leo Huckvale and Christina Smith as extras.